'QUAKE AREA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 117, 20 May 1931, Page 9

'QUAKE AREA.

COMMITTEE OF FIVE. REHABILITATION WORK. MR- J. S. BARTON CHAIRMAN. ANNOUNCEMENT BY MR. FORBES. The personnel of the Hawke'e Bay Rehabilitation Committee, set up under section 42 of the Hawke's Bay Earthquake Act, was announced this morning by the Prime Minister, the Right Hon. G. W. Forbes, in his capacity as Minister of Finance. The five members appointed are:— Mr. J. S. Barton, S.M., Commissioner at Napier, chairman. Mr. W. G. Sherratt, of Gisborne. Mr, George Shirtcliffe, of Wellington. Mr. William Waddell, of Wellington. Mr. Ernest Wright, of Wangsuiui. Biographical Notes. Mr. Wright is a consulting accountant and investigating auditor, of Wanganui. He is a Fellow of the New Zealand Society of Accountants and Auditors, and is at present practising in Wanganui. He was previously practising in Auckland, where he was associated with the reorganisation of the finance of several local bodies. In addition, he has had experience of dairy farming and of rural finance. Mr. Sherratt has been associated with sheep farming in the Hawke's Bay and Gisborne districts for many years, and wai for some time connected with the firm of Bennett and Sherratt, produce merchants. He was Mayor of Gisborne from 1914 to 1918, and has a long association with public bodies, such as the Cook County Council, the Gisborne Hospital Board and the Gisborne Harbour Board, of each of which he was at one time chairman. Mr. Shirtcliffe was for a long time associated with Messrs. A. S. Paterson and Company, Ltd., latterly as managing director. He was president of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce from 1904 to 1907, and has also been a member of the Wellington City Council and the Wellington Harbour Board. He was a member of the Taxation Commissions of 1922 and 1924. He is chairman of the advisory council associated with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Mr. J. S. Barton, S.M., was stationed at Wanganui for a number of years, before being transferred to Wellington. In addition to his legal qualifications, he is a qualified accountant. His knowledge of figures has frequently stood him in good stead both on (he magisterial bench, and on various commissions on which he has served from time to time. Mr. Barton was chairman of the commission which sat in Auckland in 1928 to consider the. transport position in the Auckland metropolitan area, and which finally determined the boundaries of the Auckland T-ransport Board's district. Mr. Barton was also. chairman of the last Napier Harbour Commission, and in his appointment as Chief Commissioner at Napier the knowledge he acquired then of local conditions has served him well. Mr. William Waddel, C.8.E., recently retired from the post of superintendent of the State Advances Office, with which Department he had been connected since its inception in 1895. Born in Southland, and educated at the Southland Boys' High School, he was appointed officer in charge of the Department two years after he joined it, and in 1907 he was promoted to the position of deputysuperintendent, which he held until 1922, when he became permanent head. Mr. Waddel was also a member of the Public Trust Office Investment Board, the Government Insurance Board, the State Fire Insurance Board, the Dominion Land Purchase Board, the Public Service Superannuation Board, and the Rural Intermediate Credit Board.